Bush Cat
by What'dIMiss
Summary: Mike is woken up in the middle of the night by his older brother, Mal, who wants to show him something outside. Takes place in the prequel era before my Mike's Cinderella story fic but can be read on its own. Intentionally OOC because they're kids and it's an AU, so cut me some slack :P One-shot.


**A/N: Why can't I just write fluff...? **

**This is a little prompted thing for yet another writing thing on the TDRPU. I decided to make it within the same timeline as one of my multi-chapter fics(guess which one-hint: its my longest) but most of it can be read without having read that. **

**The prompt was writing about something pure and this...mostly fits that? **

**Please enjoy :) **

Mike was happily asleep when he felt a small poke on his cheek. He tried to ignore it but it became repetitive, and he opened his eyes part-way to find a single brown eye staring at him. "Hey Mike." The person who had woken him up smiled slightly.

"...Mal, it's the middle of the night," Mike remarked sleepily, sitting up a little. He wasn't annoyed or anything, just tired. "A few of us actually sleep around here."

"Sleep can wait," Mal insisted. "I've got something to show you."

"Can't you just show me in the morning?"

"No, then Mom will see and scare it off." He started pulling the blankets off Mike's bed.

"Hey, it's cold in here!" Mike protested, trying to get the covers back on.

"Too late," Mal replied. "Now you have to come and see what I found."

"Fiiiiiiiine," Mike replied, tiredly getting out of bed. He hadn't caught up in height to Mal yet, but soon he would. They were both already quite tall for their ages of eight and ten.

Mal took Mike's hand and led him downstairs. Mike didn't put up much of a fight, although he did have a hard time keeping up since he was still very much not fully awake.

The house was darkened on the lower level; all the bedrooms were upstairs, and their parents were both asleep as the two of them should've been. Mal escorted Mike out the back door into the yard.

He pushed away some bushes and pointed to where he wanted Mike to look, and Mike's eyes widened slightly.

A pair of pointed ears stuck up from a ball of black fur. The animal had some dirt and sticks stuck in its fur, and one ear had a tear in it. The rustling of leaves had caused it to wake up and look around, its yellow eyes' focus landing on the two boys.

They watched as the animal stood up and stretched. It flicked its tail and started walking out of the bushes and towards them. Mike backed off a little bit, Mal took one step in his direction.

The animal-appearing to be a cat- emerged from the bushes and continued its approach until it stopped in front of one of Mal's feet, which were bare. Its little nose sniffed his toes and looked up at him and Mike, letting out a little sound that sounded like 'meow'.

"Aw...it's kind of cute," Mike commented.

The cat lifted one of its paws and placed it on Mal's foot, batting at it slightly. Mal bent down slightly and tried to touch the fur on its head, and was met with a purr. He lightly smiled and began to carefully pet it, as Mike watched. "'Wonder where this guy's been," Mal remarked. "How many fights it's won."

"A few, at least," Mike guessed based on its appearance. "Maybe Mom will let us keep it."

"I doubt it," Mal replied. "I've tried before, remember?"

"Right..." Mike didn't want to think about those times.

"If this one sticks around then maybe we'll ask her," Mal figured.

"Okay," Mike replied. "Can I pet it?"

"Sure," Mal replied, removing his hand from the creature. Mike bent down as he had but the cat seemed wary of him at first, soon slinking away and back to the bushes. Maybe Mal had spent longer time around it, who knows.

The cat did end up continuing to come back to the bushes in their backyard. Mal started to spend more time outside at night with it, further gaining its trust by leaving food out. He didn't wake Mike up as often anymore, and he seemed even more energetic during the day. Mike did sometimes go out and say hi to the cat, but never got too close.

Their parents were skeptical of this change in behavior, but didn't question it until their mother they found that certain items of food had been stolen from the kitchen, and a feather pillow had been cut open and partially raided. "Which one of you has been taking from the kitchen?" she asked after calling the two to the living room.

Mike was silent, briefly glancing at Mal.

"I was," Mal owned up to it.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised...but where has it all gone?"

"I can't tell you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"You'll scare him away."

"Who's he?"

Mal told her she'd have to wait until that night to see.

Once she was introduced to the cat she understood. Mal asked if they could keep it. "I don't think it's a good idea to have a feral animal in the house...but if it stays outside I don't see much problem with it. As long as you take care of it and don't do things to it like those other things you've brought home..."

Mal smiled.

Mike was there when the decision was made, and smiled as well.

Mal took care of the cat for almost two years, naming it Shadow for its black fur and normal hiding spot out of sight. He picked the sticks out of its fur and removed all the dirt. When it came around to winter time and was too cold to go outside at night he convinced his mother to let Shadow into the house, keeping the cat relegated to the basement.

Mal got into a bit more trouble when it came to feeding Shadow since his parents didn't buy food specifically for his cat. He had to procure it himself, often by stealing from the kitchen or even straight from vendors when he went with his mother to the market.

One day Shadow stopped showing up at night in their backyard. Mal wondered why, but never found the answer. He remained hopeful that one day his little friend would emerge from the bushes once again, but wasn't around long enough to witness it.

"Hey, Mike," Mal had said to his brother as he was packing his bag for his big trip with his dad. "Could you see if Shadow comes back while I'm gone?"

Mike had, of course, agreed to this. He had liked the cat, even if it hadn't liked him as much, and knew it had made his brother happy. If Shadow ever returned he would certainly take care to make sure it didn't starve.

Too bad neither cat nor caretaker ever returned.

**Thanks for reading, any feedback is appreciated :) **


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